STUDY: Latinos and Blacks Will be the Most Hurt With Medicaid Cuts

A new report, Medicaid: A Lifeline for Blacks and Latinos, shows how the state and federally funded health insurance program for low- income people, has historically played a critical role for people of color, providing coverage for millions of blacks and Latinos of all ages.

While Medicaid covers many more white people, because blacks and Latinos tend to have lower incomes than whites,3 they are more than twice as likely to rely on Medicaid for health coverage. In both black and Latino communities, a little more than one in four people relies on Medicaid for their health care;.

Medicaid helps roughly half of all black and Latino children get a healthy start in life. And it helps black and Latino seniors and people with disabilities who need long-term care.

Specifically for the Latino community Medicaid covers nearly one in four Latino with cancer, more than 25% of Latinos with diabetes are covered by Medicaid and nearly two in five Latinos with lung disease are covered by Medicaid.

The study concludes that Cuts to Medicaid, whether at the state or federal level, would mean the loss of essential health care for people of color who rely on Medicaid, including millions of blacks and Latinos with serious health care needs. Proportionally, cuts to the program have a much wider and deeper impact on the black and Latino communities than on whites because a significantly higher share of these communities depends on the Medicaid lifeline, including roughly half of all black and Latino children.